Nanaimo Youth Resilience Grants (Canada)

Deadline: 14-Aug-23

The City of Nanaimo is pleased to announce the Nanaimo Youth Resilience Grants to help municipalities and Indigenous communities prevent gun and gang violence by addressing their root cause.

Public Safety Canada is providing funding to address community safety through the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF).

Focus Areas

• The focus areas in the NYRS are:
  • Safe Youth Gathering Spaces
    • To establish safe, free, youth gathering spaces within existing facilities. The City is working to identify two locations for safe youth gathering spaces. The Nanaimo Youth Resilience grant may be used to fund programs in these spaces.
  • Youth Outreach
    • To expand street outreach and related programs including service hours and locations to build relationships with youth at risk, and to meet a wide range of their needs such as providing food, harm reduction, engagement in recreation, access to counseling, etc.
  • Connecting Youth to Land and Water Through Snawaylth (Teachings)
    • Enhance existing and/or create new opportunities to connect youth to the land and water through Snawaylth to strengthen their mental, emotional, spiritual, and cultural resilience.
  • Youth Mentoring Program
    • To connect youth, especially youth at risk, with diverse role models and significant/caring adults (e.g. tutors, trades or vocational role models, mentors, teachers, coaches, etc.).
  • Enhancing Existing Programs
    • To improve existing programs for youth by adding new components that fill gaps and build protective factors for children and youth-at-risk (e.g. sports, culture, education, health and wellness, life skills, socio-emotional learning, volunteering etc.).
  • Media & Communications
    • To build relationships with media and develop key positive messaging to highlight successful youth programs and initiatives that counter repeated negative media attention that perpetuate discrimination and stigmatization against youth.

Risk Factors of Focus

• The NYRS identifies risk factors that are significant for Nanaimo and the recommended focus areas listed above are intended to reduce these risk factors for youth and children. These risk factors are:
  • Land & Waters Level
    • Limited or lack of access/availability to healthy lands & waters, including Indigenous sources of foods and medicine
  • Societal Level
    • Large number of people living in poverty
    • Significant prevalence of discrimination, stigmatization, and oppression, such as racism
    • Lack of affordable, appropriate, and safe housing
    • Lack of adequate services (social, physical health, mental health, addictions, etc.)
    • High unemployment
  • Community Level
    • Presence of organized crime & human trafficking
    • Repeated negative media attention
    • Availability of street level weapons, including firearms
    • Fear of social disorder (e.g. homelessness, public drug use)
    • Lack of adequate services (cultural, recreational), Large number of residents reporting feeling unsafe in their neighbourhood
    • Neighbourhoods that show neglect and lack of sense of ownership and pride by residents
  • School Level
    • Too few teacher role models
    • Lack of attention to bullying (including cyberbullying)
    • Negative labelling by teachers
    • Access to street level drugs within the school
    • Low educational aspirations
  • Peer Level
    • Friends who are part of a gang
    • Friends with problematic substance use challenges
    • Interaction with peers in conflict with the law
    • Lack of meaningful peer connections
  • Family Level
    • Intimate partner and family violence
    • Abuse and neglect of children
    • Criminalized or incarcerated parents
    • Lone parent household with limited economic means

Funding Information

• The City of Nanaimo has access (through the BSCF program) to $1,156,699 to fund programs under the 6 focus areas.
• Funds under this grant program are available between October 1, 2023, and March 31, 2026.
• Programs do not need to run continuously but must occur between the funding timeline and start during the Fall/Winter 2023.

Who Can Apply?

• Organizations requesting funding will be established non-profit organizations, public sector entities or government bodies with experience working with youth.

Application Criteria

• The NYRS identifies the focus areas and the risk factors programs should address. In addition, the NYRS lists further criteria to ensure that programs are low barrier, accessible, and equitable. The following criteria were developed to guide the funding distribution. A program should meet most of the following criteria to be selected for funding:
  • Focuses on children and youth (ages 11-25) at risk (as per risk factors)
  • Fosters positive peer to peer interactions and connections
  • Ensures that children and youth living in poverty are included in services and recreation (e.g., arts, culture, sports, and food distribution)
  • Increases opportunities for integration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous services o Includes a focus on anti-discrimination, anti-stigmatization, and anti-oppression (e.g., youth phobia) o Provides opportunities to connect youth to the land
  • Increases socio-emotional learning opportunities
  • Offers services during peak hours for youth activity (e.g., 6 PM to 12 AM and weekends) o Provides opportunities for youth to connect to diverse role models or significant/caring adults (e.g., trades role models, tutors, teachers, coaches)
  • Includes trauma-informed practices and cultural awareness
  • Works to remove barriers to access (transportation, costs, etc.)
  • Focuses on culture, healthy relationships, and pro-social activities
  • Includes supports for family members of youth participants
  • Advances opportunities for wraparound approaches
  • Clearly identifies the recruitment and referral process
  • Establishes community partnerships with other service agencies to co-create and implement programs

For more information, visit City of Nanaimo.